I’m sure I’d heard it before, and I’ve definitely heard it many many times afterwards during all sorts of emotional situations, but the first time the song had real meaning to me was about 10 years ago. I’d gone for a concert, Beats of the Season I think it was called, and the international performing artiste was Awilo Longomba. And this guy had an entourage of like 40 people (probably an exaggeration, but it WAS a decade ago so sue me) who all seemed to be related to him in some strange remote way. Anyway, so there we are, in the dark (my memory insists it was midnight, my brain says it must have just been about 7pm) in the middle of an enormous scary crowd (i was 9, and these concerts attracted a crowd of older, drinking, potentially-stoned people, okay?) and this song starts playing. And we’re walking along just listening to it and generally feeling frightened when I saw this couple. It was one of Awilo’s nephews/uncles/cousins and I’d seen him on stage at some point. He was scruffy-looking, dreads all the way down his back to his ass. He was with his wife/girlfriend/baby mama/one-night-stand and she was standing with her back to him, but they weren’t getting all down and durrty grinding, they were just, I dunno…moving together as one. And singing to each other. I’ve never quite been able to describe it properly, but you know when people are so in love it’s like the very air around them becomes charged and static? When nothing they do can be a lewd act, everything is pure and beautiful and right?

“Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they’re not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or – such is the pleasure they experience – they may never finish it.” Paulo Coelho wrote that in Eleven Minutes. And that’s exactly what I mean. As they were standing there in the dark, dirty and tired, just enjoying each other and the moment, it was like they were making love continually. Hell, even when I remember that night, I see the two of them with a spotlight shining on them, and everything around them just a hazy, fuzzy, unimportant reality. And I felt so privileged to be able to somehow share in that moment. And so today, one of my all-time favourite songs, from two of my all-time favourite artists. A song that heralded the birth of me as a complete and utter romantic:

As usual I have about 15 incomplete posts just waiting to be finished and published, but I want to do something different today. If you hadn’t noticed already, to me music = life. If I’m not listening to something, then I’m almost definitely singing to myself or drumming out beats. And if I’m not doing THAT, then be sure the secondary voice in my head (not the one thinking and saying stuff, but the background one) is doing the same – playing a song, or singing, or making beats. I used to think everyone felt that way, but I get surprised time after time when I talk to people who like music fine, but it isn’t their main squeeze, you know? Anyway, every day for a week, starting today, I’m going to write the lyrics of a song I’m really feeling. It could be the whole song, it could be just a verse or the chorus or whatever. It may be a favourite song, or it may just be something I listen today every once in a while. Whatev.

Also, when I was doing all this importing stuff, I realized that I’m nearly a year old in the world of blogging 🙂 🙂 I don’t know what I’m going to do to commemorate this shit, but it’ll definitely be something 🙂